Category Archives: Life!

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I saw this Help Wanted flyer in my local grocery store the other day and it made me smile.

The most unusual hours I ever worked were on a swing shift from 4pm to midnight as a copyeditor and proofreader for yellow-page phone directory ads.

There was a day shift too (I shared a desk and a computer with the day shift employee), but as one could earn a few cents more per hour, I decided to work the swing shift.

On my shift, the company building was always dark, empty, quiet, and calm—the only occupants were two small teams of graphic designers and copyeditors. The idea was efficiency—the swing shift copyeditors worked on the ads that had just been produced by the day shift graphic designers and vise versa.

I wonder what motivated someone to carry a pair of skis over four and a half miles and 3,800 feet of elevation gain to the top of Box Elder Peak (9,372 feet) and prop them artistically against this striking stump?

Apparently—and amazingly—I own a working Walkman portable radio/cassette tape player.

I came across this Walkman this afternoon while I was sorting USB and charger cables. I popped in some batteries, popped in Golden Greats by The Ventures—a tape which I just happen to have, along with a couple of Johnny Horton tapes, because I’m slow to let go of old technology—connected it to some speakers (also old), and presto—it worked!

Right now, I’m listening to “Wipe-Out.” It’s the last song on Side 1, so pretty soon I’ll get to flip the tape to Side 2. How fun!

This Walkman, and a couple of others like it, were used by me and my siblings on many a family road trip during the early 1990s when I was young.

On Saturday, I visited Clearfield, Utah and spent a fun afternoon shopping at what I call the Thrift Store Threesome—a Goodwill, a Deseret Industries, and a Savers store all in the same block. Here’s my haul. It was a great day for shoes and stylish tops.